if you want to take the president to court over whether this is a national emergency or not, you have to understand the question in front of the court, and i expect that the democrats are going to fuck this up because they have a history of politicizing it.

the first murmurs i've heard are saying things like "it's a collapse of the separation of powers!" and "he's just trying to overturn congress!".

true. probably.

but, this can never be a question in front of a serious judge. in a sense, it doesn't even fucking matter why he's doing it. the judiciary cannot second guess the president! that, itself, would be a collapse in the separation of powers, and if it's the argument the democrats move forward with then they're going to lose.

as it was with the travel ban, you have to accept the premise, because the court has no jurisdiction to challenge it. if the president says there's a national emergency, then there's a national emergency. period. it doesn't matter if it's stupid, the president has executive power, and you have to deal with that.

the question before the court is not going to be whether there's a national emergency, or whether he's being racist, or whether he's overturning congress, but whether his actions are a rational means to address the national emergency. and, the way he words the things is going to be important.

so, let's say he decides that there's a national emergency because drugs are coming in through the border. it doesn't matter that this isn't true. what matters is whether a wall is a rational means to address it - and it's actually not hard to show that it isn't, so long as you understand that's what you're supposed to do.

everybody can intuitively grasp that he shouldn't be able to do this, but you're actually wrong - in theory this is well within his executive power. what the judiciary can do is hold him accountable in the sense of making sure he's not being irrational. but, the president is the president, and the judiciary is the judiciary, and democrats have to make sure they understand what the different roles are before they fuck this up.

my odds are 2:1 that they fuck it up.

3. If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.